Five things to know about the ASD’s expansion in Nashville

There has been a lot of chatter about the fate of low-performing schools in Nashville, and the Achievement School District’s potential involvement in turning those schools around.

The number of Metro Nashville schools on a list of low-performers released by the state Department of Education more than doubled this year, signaling that the ASD would be accelerating its growth in Nashville. ASD superintendent Chris Barbic even wrote an editorial paving the way for smooth relations between the Nashville community and his district, which can overhaul the faculty, staff, and governance of the state’s lowest performing schools.

Here are five things to know about what the expansion in Nashville will look like:

1)The ASD is only taking over one school in Nashville next year. Metro Nashville’s number of priority schools more than doubled, from six schools in 2012 to 15 this year. In contrast, Shelby County Schools actually saw a decrease in priority schools, from 69 to 59. But, because of the limited number of organizations authorized by the ASD to open schools in Nashville, the district’s capitol expansion will still be tempered.

“It’s just a question of putting quality over scale and working with that charter operator and making sure they’re growing at the right pace, the pace that’s right for them,” Smalley said.

In February, the ASD will open up applications for charter organizations. More organizations might apply to open schools in Nashville, Smalley said, which means Nashville might see more ASD schools in the coming years. The ASD will approve operators in June.

Rise & Shine Tennessee

“Chalkbeat grounds me in the work going on here. It’s a lifesaver for understanding the lay of the education land.” — Clare L.

Smalley said one possible reason for the relative dearth of organizations interested in partnering with the ASD in Nashville is the lack of a local philanthropic community working to attract charter networks.

2) LEAD will be the only charter organization to expand in Nashville this year.

LEAD Public Schools is the default choice to continue the district’s expansion in Nashville because the ASD has only authorized three charter management organizations to take over or open schools in Nashville. The other two eligible operators, KIPP and Rocketship, are not focusing on opening more schools with the ASD at this time, Smalley said. Last month, Rocketship officials told Chalkbeat that they would prefer to open schools with the Metro Nashville Public Schools, in part because state law limits enrollment at ASD schools to students who are zoned to priority schools, which are academically in the bottom five percent of schools statewide.

3) It hasn’t yet been decided whether LEAD will take over a priority school in East Nashville.

East Nashville has the highest concentration of priority schools in Nashville, and its residents have organized a political action committee, called East Nashville United, in protest of Metro Nashville’s plan to turnaround or close those schools. Earlier this month director of schools Jesse Register announced a plan to close one or two as-of-yet unnamed schools in the area, convert some schools to charters, and eliminate residential zones, making East Nashville an all-choice zone. The members of East Nashville United say there needs to be more community input in the plan. Three of LEAD’s schools are in West Nashville.

4) The matching process in Nashville might look different than it does in Memphis.

The ASD is gearing up for its matching process in Memphis, which involves a series of community meetings and conversations with Shelby County Schools officials to determine which schools will be taken over or created, and which charter operators will take over those schools. The matching process in Nashville has not yet been defined, Smalley said, but it will look different, since community members don’t have multiple operators to choose from. ASD and LEAD officials are still in discussions with Metro Nashville Public Schools about the priority schools LEAD might want to work with.

5) The ASD has a good track record in Nashville, although it’s limited to one school.The ASD’s results overall have been mixed, but its Nashville school has done well.Brick Church College Prep saw the largest test score gains in the ASD this year — more than 20 percentage points each in reading and math. A common criticism of charter schools is that they underserve special education populations, but more than 30 percent of Brick Church’s students are classified as special education students, far above the percentage of special education students in the state, which hovers around 13 percent.

Know something about the expansion in Nashville that we don’t? Tell us in the comments.

Hiring more security officers in Memphis after school shootings could have unintended consequences

Tennessee’s largest district, Shelby County Schools, is slated to add more school resource officers under the proposed budget for next school year.

Superintendent Dorsey Hopson earmarked $2 million to hire 30 school resource officers in addition to the 98 already in some of its 150-plus schools. The school board is scheduled to vote on the budget Tuesday.

But an increase in law enforcement officers could have unintended consequences.

A new state law that bans local governments from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials could put school resource officers in an awkward position.

Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen recently reminded school personnel they are not obligated to release student information regarding immigration status. School resource officers employed by police or sheriff’s departments, however, do not answer to school districts. Shelby County Schools is still reviewing the law, but school board members have previously gone on the record emphasizing their commitment to protecting undocumented students.

“Right now we are just trying to get a better understanding of the law and the impact that it may have,” said Natalia Powers, a district spokeswoman.

Also, incidents of excessive force and racial bias toward black students have cropped up in recent years. Two white Memphis officers were fired in 2013 after hitting a black student and wrestling her to the ground because she was “yelling and cussing” on school grounds. And mothers of four elementary school students recently filed a lawsuit against a Murfreesboro officer who arrested them at school in 2016 for failing to break up a fight that occurred off-campus.

Rise & Shine Tennessee

“Chalkbeat grounds me in the work going on here. It’s a lifesaver for understanding the lay of the education land.” — Clare L.

Just how common those incidents are in Memphis is unclear. In response to Chalkbeat’s query for the number and type of complaints in the last two school years, Shelby County Schools said it “does not have any documents responsive to this request.”

Currently, 38 school resource officers are sheriff’s deputies, and the rest are security officers hired by Shelby County Schools. The officers respond and work to prevent criminal activity in all high schools and middle schools, Hopson said. The 30 additional officers would augment staffing at some schools and for the first time, branch out to some elementary schools. Hopson said those decisions will be based on crime rates in surrounding neighborhoods and school incidents.

Hopson’s initial recommendation for more school resource officers was in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and sparked a wave of student activism on school safety, including in Memphis.

For more on the role and history of school resource officers in Tennessee, read our five things to know.

Sheriff’s deputies and district security officers meet weekly, said Capt. Dallas Lavergne of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. When the Memphis Police Department pulled their officers out of school buildings following the merger of city and county school systems, the county Sheriff’s Office replaced them with deputies.

All deputy recruits go through school resource officer training, and those who are assigned to schools get additional annual training. In a 2013 review of police academies across the nation, Tennessee was cited as the only state that had specific training for officers deployed to schools.